EMS meets ESM: Watch out, SAP!

Outdated and inefficient processes hinder business operations, cost time and money. Joint solutions from Celonis and ServiceNow are designed to help companies eliminate such "Eliminate bottlenecks in processes that have developed over decades, drive digitization and improve the working environment for employees" said Bill McDermott, CEO of ServiceNow. In addition, ServiceNow plans to make a financial investment in Celonis.

Process automation

The solutions are designed to help companies identify the processes that are suitable for automation. Based on this, digital workflows could then be created to optimize processes and workflows. Data execution, automation, machine learning, process mining, robotic process automation and low-code app development on the Now Platform will be combined with Celonis' Execution Management System (EMS) to provide customers with real-time information.

The goal is to achieve a higher level of automation for customers by redefining processes across the entire business landscape. Insightful insights in real time are to be directly translated into executable improvement measures. The joint solutions are expected to be available in the first half of 2022.

"We are convinced that the winners of the digital transformation will be those companies that make targeted use of data in every facet of their business processes" said Alexander Rinke, co-CEO and co-founder of Celonis.

According to the company, Celonis and ServiceNow have defined a joint go-to-market strategy; this includes close collaboration in development, marketing and sales. In addition, Celonis plans to deploy ServiceNow's workflow solutions in IT and employee engagement. ServiceNow is already using Celonis' process mining capabilities to identify inefficiencies in finance and sales.

What this means for SAP

Celonis should be quite motivated to make this partnership a success. After all, the company was SAP's preferred partner for Process Intelligence until the acquisition of Signavio. Although the innovation partnership remains largely unchanged, Celonis is likely to feel booted out.

At the same time, McDermott is an SAP insider who knows exactly what makes the Walldorf company tick and where its weak points are. For SAP, this is another highly aggressive rival after Salesforce, which originally had a completely different core business.

Nevertheless, SAP will not give up market share without a fight. For its part, the top dog has a few trump cards up its sleeve. Above all, the significantly broader positioning and the outstanding partner network should ensure that SAP can defend itself.

Many large enterprises will certainly remain SAP customers even if they use ServiceNow. But it might be advisable to keep an eye on ServiceNow's advance into SAP's territory.